Bonjour Madame! – Working for the World Economic Forum

Laura De Francisco Campillo

26 oktober 2010

Good morning, today I am in Genève. The third European financial centre after London and Zurich, the “Peace Capital”, and the most important international co-operation centre due to the presence of the headquarters of some agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross.

And today I am going to one of those international organizations, the World Economic Forum (1). Deloitte is strategic partner for the Forum, and as such, we provide the Forum with fresh ideas, we are involved in shaping initiatives and collaborating in taskforces globally. As an employee from Deloitte, this means for me having the great opportunity to work for the Forum for the coming three months.

How does it all look like? Casual yet fancy people working hard, almost everybody looking around 30 and being highly engaged and enthusiastic about the work they do. Excellent views on the Geneva lake through the window, breakthrough architecture and artwork in the gardens. Fair trade coffee in the coffee machine, organic yogurt in the canteen and few parking spots on sight.

Focus point? Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2011. How to drive sustainable consumption (2) is the question to be answered. How to get consumer engaged? How can corporations benefit from using life cycle thinking? How can governments speed up the process using policy innovations? This is a unique chance to get at the core of such discussions in sustainability.

Some thoughts I have. Will the world change after January 2011? Will the consumer shift their consumption habits into a more sustainable attitude? Will companies dare to work together, maybe struggle in the short term, just to ensure a better future for our planet in the long term? Does sustainable consumption translate into less growth, no growth or “another kind” of growth for our economy?

I keep you posted; I am looking forward to get everything ready for the Annual Meeting in Davos!

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